Pubdate: Mon, 11 Aug 2008
Source: Los Angeles Times (CA)
Copyright: 2008 Los Angeles Times
Contact: http://drugsense.org/url/bc7El3Yo
Website: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/248
Author: Vera Leone
Note: Vera Leone is an Internet communications associate with the 
Drug Policy Alliance.
Referenced: The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling 
http://drugsense.org/url/SYiKN2It
Referenced: Strip-Searched Girl Wins Appeal 
http://www.mapinc.org/drugnews/v08/n000/a067.html
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?225 (Students - United States)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/topic/strip+searches

DRUG WAR MADNESS

Federal Courts Took Far Too Long to Rule That It's Wrong to 
Strip-Search a 13-Year-Old Girl Suspected of Carrying Ibuprofen.

She was a 13-year-old honor student. She may or may not have given 
her friend prescription-strength ibuprofen, though the girl certainly 
didn't have any on her. An assistant principal, acting on the word of 
a scared fellow student, brought the eighth-grade girl into his 
office and subjected her to a strip search. In the presence of the 
school nurse and the assistant principal's administrative assistant, 
this young woman was forced to strip off her clothes including her 
underwear, exposing first her breasts and then her pubic area, on the 
erroneous suspicion that she was hiding . . . ibuprofen. At this 
Arizona middle school, students are prohibited from carrying drugs -- 
even over-the-counter medication -- into school.

Last month, The Times reported that a panel of judges on the U.S. 9th 
Circuit Court of Appeals overturned (in a 6-5 decision) previous 
rulings that condoned the actions of the assistant principal, who is 
now finally considered liable for damages.

The student was searched by women, the nurse and the administrative 
assistant. It's still abuse. I've been through these searches. 
Regardless of your gender or that of the people searching you, it's a 
violation of your rights.

I spent six months in federal prison for civil disobedience a few 
years ago. What vividly remains far and away the worst part of the 
experience was being strip-searched. After receiving a visit, I ran 
the random (sometimes not so random) risk of having to strip off all 
my clothes, including undergarments -- just in the way this 
middle-school girl was forced to strip -- and bend over and cough. As 
a survivor of sexual abuse, these strip searches were particularly 
traumatic. Given the percentage of incarcerated women who are also 
survivors of abuse, these strip searches were traumatic for most 
women. Some guards used their power punitively. Such searches can 
re-traumatize survivors, and even for women and girls on the outside, 
sexual abuse and assault are far too common.

Until this recent successful appeal, school officials, supported by 
not one but two previous sets of judges, had (almost) gotten away 
with an unfathomable violation. In their zeal to completely eliminate 
student access to all drugs, in what will forever remain a failed 
endeavor (we can't keep drugs out of prisons, so how can we keep them 
out of schools?) that neither teaches our children about fact-based 
decision-making nor builds trusting relationships with them, those 
fighting the drug war have unapologetically crossed a very serious 
line. There is no moral defense for their reprehensible actions. They 
were not protecting the safety of students. What are we doing to our 
students by treating them in such a manner? Why are we doing things 
to 13-year-old girls that appear to be preparing them for prison?

While the Arizona assistant principal might be exposed to a civil 
liability, it's not nearly enough. Everyone who stood by should be 
fired for the unconscionable abuse of this student. Everyone who 
participated in this horrific violation -- including the nurse and 
the secretary -- deserves nothing short of being expelled from our 
public schools immediately. They should be nowhere near our children, 
ever -- let alone responsible for their protection.

Thanks to the drug war, middle-school administrators are behaving 
like prison guards -- and that scares the hell out of me. It 
horrifies me that an assistant principal, his administrative 
assistant, a nurse, five of the 11 judges in this case and two 
previous sets of judges all thought this act was acceptable.

Is no one -- not even 13-year-old young women and their bodies -- 
safe from drug war zealots?
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake